Blue Ribbon Pickled Peppers

Photo: MVL

Before you go any further (or click away) – this recipe is beginner level. And, yes, you can do it. And, yes, you’ll be glad you did.

Home-canning (pickling, preserving, putting up, whatever) can be really intimidating! We even wrote a whole article about it a while back. (How to Pickle Beets and Live to Tell About It.) That article will also tell you how we earned our canning confidence.

During the hot, southern summer of ‘23, MVL threw a slew of home canning classes at the Historic Turlington House. Most of our pupils knew nothing about putting up food. A few knew enough to preserve RAW MEATS (talk about intimidating!!!) and were just looking for a fun afternoon of discovering fresh canning ideas. We wore out the season with pickled okras, peaches, red onions, carrots, daikon radishes, roasted corn salsa, cauliflower, and…pickled jalapeño peppers.

What makes our super simple Pickled Pepper recipe a Blue Ribbon affair? Well, we got brave and took a jar of those Pickled Peppers we made in class and entered the county fair! Neighbor, we live in the south. You couldn’t ask for stiffer competition! If you want to know all about what it’s like to enter a small, southern county fair, well, we wrote all about that, too – I’ll Always Look Forward to the County Fair.

Long story short, we dang won us a Blue Ribbon with our Pickled Peppers! So to celebrate, we’re passing the winning recipe to you! If you’re interested in learning more about water bath canning, sign up for the MVL newsletter. You’ll get first dibs on seats that open up in classes at the Historic Turlington House (and a chance to compete in YOUR county fair next year!).

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